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Monday, November 28, 2016

TWO OF MANY: These two brick houses on Main Street in Orford are just two of the numerous brick structures built in the region during the 19th century. The house on the left was built in 1831 by Orford's first lawyer Abiathar Briton after his previous house burned. The one on the right was built in 1835 as his office. Both are built using bricks from the Brick Hill brickyard on the Orfordville Road.

RYEGATE BRICKYARD: During most of the 19th and early 20th centuries brick were manufactured in Ryegate. Taken about 1910 this photo of the Ryegate Brick Company plant in East Ryegate. Bricks from this plant were used for local buildings throughout the region. (UVM Landscape Change)

The two photos above are of the Lamarre Brickyard in Woodsville and were originally
published as past of the Over the River and Through the Years series by Katharine Blaisdell. (Journal Opinion)

“Though the material is cheap, it takes considerable care,
study and experience, to make a kiln of brick that will turn out shapely, solid
and handsome.” St. Johnsbury Caledonian
April 9, 1880.

Brick is one of the oldest man-made building materials.It was first used 10,000 years ago, with the
first kiln-fired bricks developed about 5,500 years ago. Those bricks provided
builders with sought-afterfire-proof
material.

The first known manufacturing of brick in New England was in
Salem, Massachusetts in 1629. Deposits of varve clay and sand were discovered
in most area towns along the Connecticut River. Left by lakes formed by the
retreating glacial ice sheets, these fine-grained materials were very suitable
for making bricks.

This column describes brick making and usage in the area
from 1770 to the early 20th century. The sources include town
histories, historic publications and several websites.Combining those brick makers listed in local
histories with additional ones listed on the International Brick Collectors’
website, there were more than 37 individuals and companies making bricks in the
region.

One has only to travel along area roads to see examples of
houses, churches and commercial buildings built with locally manufactured
bricks. Brick houses came into fashion in the 1820s and their construction
costs were competitive with framed ones of the same size. There is little doubt
that a brick home was a status symbol of a family’s place in the
community.Some houses that began as
wooden structures were augmented with major brick additions added as the
homeowners prospered.

Dwellings were not the only uses for bricks. At first,
bricks were used for chimneys, replacing the ones made of crude stone “laid up
with clay.” Over the years, brick uses expanded to foundations, sugaring
arches, brick ovens, cemetery vaults, smoke houses, fireplaces and well
linings. Bricks were also used for churches, school buildings and government
buildings.

In April, 1880 The
Caledonian published a long article on brick making at the St. Johnsbury Brick
Company. The following three paragraphs contain a summary of that article, but
they include some additional specific terms used in the manufacturing process.

There is something more to making bricks than the digging of
clay, the drawing of sand, or the forming of the mortar into shape. Depending
on the demand, this company uses from nine to fifteen men and three horses. To
make the mortar of the right consistency, it takes about one part sand to two
parts clay mixed with the proper amount of water. After mixing in a
horse-powered machine, the “soft mud” is struck or molded. It is sloppy work
and the men are scantily clad.

The bricks are then laid aside for 24 hours to dry after
which they are laid up in kilns ready for burning. The weather has a lot to do
with brick making. The old adage is that good hay weather is good brick making
weather. It requires considerable skill to lay up and burn a kiln of
brick.

For the fire, wood is used in an effort to provide an even
heat.Too hot a fire will spoil the
bricks and too light a fire will result in bricks that are too soft. This
baking to a “cherry red” takes 6 to 8 days.The article concludes with: “Brick making is no boy’s play, but it takes
some money, some skill, and considerable hard work.”

Asa Low was Bradford’s most important brick maker. From his
yard above the village he produced the bricks to build for himself a brick
store in 1835 and a grist mill in 1847.His bricks were also used to build a number of the homes that still line
the village’s Main Street.

Builders used harder face bricks for the outside of
structures where they would be exposed to weathering.Softer bricks were used in sheltered
locations.Low used both in his brick store,
the former American Legion building, on South Main Street.Looking at the rear of that structure today,
one can see the softer bricks exposed when an addition was removed.

South Newbury and Wells River were the centers for brick
making in Newbury.John Mills had the
earliest kiln in South Newbury. Benjamin Atwood followed and, in 1833,produced bricks for $3 per thousand.
He supplied most of the homes during that period in Newbury.

Seaborn Eastman and his son George Eastman manufactured
bricks in South Newbury, with the latter purchasing Atwood’s operation. A
newspaper reported in November, 1874, Eastman was “ready to count out” his
latest production. Two other brick makers listed are Charles Barrett and
William Webber.

In 1915, Dwight S. Stone opened a brick yard in Wells River
on the road to South Ryegate.It
operated for about 10 years. In 1981 Theron Carbee spoke to the Newbury
Historical Society about his work atStone’s
brickyard in the early 1920s.He
described a more mechanized operation than the St. Johnsbury brickyard
described above. Carbee said blue clay was mixed with lime to promote
hardening.

With about 40,000 bricks being fired at a time it took 300
or 400 cords of wood burned over 13 days to complete the process.An expert supervised the firing. Some of the
bricks were in demand for ornamental use. “As they melted on the ends, they
acquired the texture and color of green glass,” Carbee explained. When
finished, the bricks were loaded on railroad cars for shipment.

In Thetford, there were several brickyards. The one operated
by Hezekiah Porter in Thetford Center in the 1820s and 30s produced bricks for
the Town Hall in 1830 and Thetford Center Church in 1836 as well as a number of
homes, including his own. The New England Business Directory of 1856 lists
Thomas G. Sanborn of Thetford Center as another brick maker.

George C. Taplin began his East Corinth brick business in
April 1876. The local newspaper reported that in 1880 he fired 160,000 bricks
in kilns “almost a century old at the time.” Ananiah Webb also produced bricks
in South Corinth.

Of all the structures made from brick, the most intriguing
was “Chapman’s Folly” in East Corinth.Begun by John Chapman after 1820, it was modeled after a mansion he had
seen in Philadelphia. It was said to contained 100,000 bricks from local kilns.
Costing over $15,000, it was the only brick house in that village.

It was the Chapman’s “pet project,” and as he became elderly
“the mansion was still unfinished, only one or two rooms being habitable.”When it was sold in 1871, an article in
Bradford’s National Opinion reported:
“Uncle John and his house appear somewhat alike, dilapidated by years, and well
might he say that ‘All this is vanity and vexation of spirit.’” The house was
used as a short time as a hotel, but burned in 1899. The original Blake
Memorial Library was built on the site.

In Fairlee, Milo R. Jenkins was a brick maker from
1882-1888. Another firm under the name Jenkins & Carr was listed in 1883.
In West Fairlee there is a mention of C. L. Houghton in 1872. Perhaps the
bricks for the West Fairlee District 4 School came from his yard.

The St. Johnsbury
Brick Company was established in 1871 and manufactured common and pressed
bricks as mentioned above. In 1877, it was producing 200,000 “good bricks, at
prices to suit the times.” In 1881 it was owned by N. P. and T. H. Bowman and
within a decade was producing 1 million bricks each year at its operation in
Paddock’s Village in St. Johnsbury.

Bricks were first manufactured in Ryegate from 1825 to 1859
by John McLure.In 1890, Martin Gibson
opened a brickyard in South Ryegate and his company was a competitor of the St.
Johnsbury firm. According to the Ryegate history, Gibson produced about 1.5
million bricks yearly for the first six years. In 1896 he put in a steam brick
plant and greatly increased his production.

That production reached 2.5 million bricks annually worth
about $14,000. Gibson called on Congress to set a higher tariff on imported
bricks because of the unfair competition posed by cheaper production costs
abroad.He reported that he employed
about 25 men for a 60-hour week at wages between $1.50 and $4 per day depending
on skill levels. In 1893, it was reported that the brick works “was alive with
Frenchmen” and, at least once, Gibson was cited for hiring illegal Canadian
workers.

The company’s bricks were of superior quality and used in a
number of buildings in northern Vermont and New Hampshire. Local buildings that
still stand include the old bank building in Bradford and Tenny Memorial
Library in Newbury. In 1904, the brickyard was leased to Nelson and Wallace.

Bricks were also manufactured on the New Hampshire side of
the river. In Orford, the first brickyard dates from the 1770s. In 1828 it was
reported, “The Orford brickyard was busy producing a large quantity of bricks
for James Dayton.” Later the name of Abner Powers was connected with the
brickyard in 1856 andthenThomas Mann in
1861. Isaac Hartwell owned it for a time and then sold it to John Carr in 1883.
The Olcott Fall Corp. purchased it in 1885. In 1904 J. S. Hastings purchased
“the old brick yard” from Henry Wheeler.

This brick yard, located on what was known as Brick Hill, is
near the present Rivendell School on the Orfordville Road. Wendell Woodward of
Orford grew up in a nearby home and recently told me that he recalls piles of
brick left over from the operation.A
number of remaining village homes were builtwith bricks between 1822 and 184.These including two on the Ridge. The former Universalist Church (1840)
and the Orford Academy (1851) were also constructed of locally-made bricks.

Brick making took place in Piermont as early as 1789. In
1832, Isaac Bickford of Piermont manufactured the bricks used to build his own
house just south of the Piermont town line (now Ariana’s Restaurant). At one
point a large commercial yard was operated by Arthur Runels.

The first mention of brick makers in Haverhill was a firm
owned by Eli, Newhall and Asher Pike in the 1820s and 30s.Bricks from their operation were used in the
construction of the Brick Church and old county buildings at Haverhill
Corner,now the Haverhill Library and Alumni Hall.

Other individuals mentioned as having connections with brick
manufacturing in Haverhill are Harvey Wilmot (1860), John Lawrence (1875),
Elisa Meader (to 1876) and the North Haverhill Brick Company (1877-1883). There
were also Woodsville yards operated by Charles C. Smart (1878) and IraWhitcher (1886) on Mill Street in
Woodsville. Smart also operated a yard in Rumney from 1875 to 1893.

Eustache Lamarre started a brickyard in Woodsville around
1894.He had worked at Martin Gilson’s
in East Ryegate and Ira Whitcher’s in Woodsville.He hired a number of French-Canadian workers
including four of his own brothers. His company’s bricks were used to build a
number of local buildings including Woodsville High School, North Haverhill
Library and two blocks on Central Street.They were also shipped by train to Massachusetts. The company later
moved to Bath and continued to operate until 1922.

There were different types of bricks depending on intended
use. These varied from front bricks to ornamental and fire bricks.Some yards produced both water struck bricks
and sand struck bricks, terms that referred to the method used to remove the
unfired brick from the molds, the former being more desirable despite being
more expensive to manufacture.Over the
years, the entire process became more mechanized with horses being replaced
with steam or electric machines and trucks and railroad cars replacing wagons.
Those who are interested will find additional materials online.

As you drive around
the region look at the brick structures that can be found in every
community.While some have disappeared,
others can still be seen on village streets and rural roads. Whether graceful
as an elegant mansion, as utilitarian as a commercial building or sturdy as a
church, they stand in tribute to the brick makers and bricklayers of our
past.Honor their work with your
appreciation.

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About Me

I am the President of the Bradford Historical Society. I retired after teaching social studies in Bradford for 42 years, beginning at Bradford Academy in 1964 and finishing at Oxbow High School in June 2006. Throughout my teaching career I emphasized local history as a bridge to understanding United States history. This column has been a major activity of my retirement and I thank those who helped me research the topics and edit the writings. The towns covered include Thetford to Ryegate in Vermont and Lyme to Haverhill in New Hampshire. I have sold out of my first book IN TIMES PAST: ESSAYS FROM THE UPPER VALLEY, which raised $5300 for the Bradford Public Library. Book Two is now available by mail for $20, check payable to the Bradford Public Library, sent to Larry Coffin, PO Box 490, Bradford,VT 05033 or purchased at local outlets.